Blog Calendar

12/17/13 - The Trap

It happens most often with the squat and all of it’s beautiful variations. But, it happens in other movements, as well. Push ups don’t quite get to the floor sometimes or arms don’t fully lock out other times.

It’s a trap. It’s funny, you know? We’re human and we don’t like the way fear feels. Not knowing about the future is inherently scary.

Ending up in the bottom of a squat not knowing if you’ll make it back out is scary. I get it.

Let me remind you, though, that avoiding that end range of motion is a trap. It sucks you in with all of its successful lifts and safe returns to standing. It doesn’t come with the unknown and the occasional failed lift. It dupes you into short sided thinking. Maybe making 155 pounds for all five reps just above full depth feels good in the moment, especially when compared to it’s full depth counterpart at, say, 140 pounds. But, for what? For today? Let me remind you. You don’t come here to show off your fitness.

Eric fully expressing his back squat range of motion.

You come here to build it.

Part of the problem with building strength in partial ranges of motions is there’s no real coming back from that. The gap between what you can do in a three quarter squat, for example, becomes vastly heavier than what you can do in a full squat. And, this makes me nervous for you. It makes me nervous because, if you aren’t willing to check your ego for a day over a measly fifteen pounds, will you ever be diligent enough to go back a train a full squat when it means taking 90lbs off the bar to be successful?